Two Donegal schools win county honours in Someone Like Me art competition

Gartan National School and Kilkenny National School are celebrating being named Junior and Senior County Winners respectively of the prestigious national art competition, Someone Like Me.

Now in its eighth year, the Someone Like Me art competition, which is organised by the National Disability Authority, attracted more than 2,200 entries from national schools across the length and breadth of the country.

The competition was created as part of the National Disability Authority’s work to nurture more positive attitudes towards persons with disabilities and, to date, it has seen more than 17,500 children take part in lesson plans and pupil activities designed to challenge our young people to appreciate and respect similarities and differences in people.

The three-person judging panel comprising Ann Higgins, principal of Hospital School Children’s Health Ireland; Dr Carly Cheevers, senior research officer at the National Disability Authority; and Laura McGrath, an autism class teacher was particularly impressed with the entries Gartan National School, which is based at Tirargus, Churchill, and Kilkenny National School, Glenties, selecting them as County Winners based on their insightful and inspirational responses to the theme of ‘Someone Like Me’.

Gartan National School, with teacher Ann Gourley, was the Junior County Winner.

“Our students explored the Someone Like Me lessons which got us all thinking about inclusion, acceptance and understanding,” they said. “We explored ways in which we can be kind to others in our day-to-day and how kindness brings out the best in us all. The children all stated that being kind made them feel 'good', it 'lifted' their spirits and the spirits of others.

“This is what inspired the title for our collaborative piece 'We rise by lifting others'. From this, each child created a mini version of themselves using markers and scissors to cut out. The children decided to incorporate a rainbow using their handprints as a symbol of peace and kindness. Their cutouts were then displayed up over the rainbow. We were delighted by our finished piece.

Niamh Boyle looked after the Senior County Winner, Kilkenny National School’s fifth and sixth class pupils Gráinne McPolin and Kellie Herron.

“Our Disability Book urges people to treat everyone equally no matter what disability they have,” they said.

Gartan National School and Kilkenny National School will now go on to compete with 46 other schools from around the country for the overall national Someone Like Me award which will be announced at the national awards ceremony to be held at Dublin City Hall on Wednesday, January 17.

The competition, which offers a range of prizes up to the value of €1,250, was open to all primary school pupils from junior infants to sixth class and more than 2,200 entries were received from individual pupils, class groups and whole schools right across Ireland. Entries ranged from posters and collages to large sculptural installations and multi-media pieces.